Speaking to the Observer Magazine, Muamba said: "I don't think in my mind I'm ready to sit down and watch the accident again.

"Time is a healer, and maybe I'll gain the strength to watch it again, but I think for now once is enough."

(Image: Getty)

The ex-Arsenal youngster, now 26, says he wishes things could have been different - he has since retired from playing and is in the final year of a sports journalism degree, while also working part-time for the PFA in its education department - but remains grateful merely to be alive.

"I'm just more grateful and thankful that I have my life. Would you prefer to be dead forever, or not play football?" he said.

His wife, Shauna Muamba, said he occasionally still suffers from short-term memory loss: "Although sometimes it's selective, when it's taking the bins out..."

Mrs Muamba said football is "an addiction" for her husband, with him declaring: "I want it in every room. As long as I can hear it in the house I'm all right."